Jeb Bush's summer bummer

A former business partner is being sued by the Justice Department. The man he hoped would clean up children's services plunged him into another scandal. His daughter went to jail. Bush's best hope for staying governor? Divided Democrats.

By Anthony York

Aug 28, 2002 | A U.S. Justice Department lawsuit against a former business partner of Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is raising new questions about yet another Bush's old business dealings. State Democrats think the scrutiny could be their best chance to evict Bush from the governor's office in November. As one Florida Democratic operative puts it, the key to erasing Bush's double-digit lead over his potential Democratic challengers, former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno and Tampa attorney Bill McBride, is to tell the story of how Bush "came to Miami with chickenshit, and turned it into chicken salad."

Bush has endured a long, hot summer of hideous headlines -- on everything from his daughter Noelle's drug conviction to the ongoing scandal at the state's social services agency. Department of Children and Families head Kathleen Kearney was forced to resign after 5-year-old Rilya Wilson disappeared from state custody, and the department had to admit there are many other children under its purview that it cannot find. An investigation by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel quickly turned up nine of the missing children the agency had lost track of. Trouble continued when Bush tapped Oklahoman Jerry Reiger to replace Kearney. Reiger's name appears on a 1989 article titled "The Christian World View of the Family," published by the Coalition on Revival, which condones spanking of children, even if it causes bruises or welts, and insists women should not work outside the home. Reiger, listed as the group's co-chairman, now says he had nothing to do with the article.

So far, though, neither frontrunner Reno nor McBride, who will face off in a Sept. 10 primary for the right to challenge Bush, has been able to use the bad news to gain traction against Bush. A recent Florida television station poll showed Reno trailing Bush by 15 points. (The same poll shows Reno with a 55-22 lead over McBride.) Florida Democrats say they've been frustrated by the lack of national media attention to the governor's business scandal. And they haven't been able to convince national Democrats that the scandal, or any of Jeb Bush's other political problems, justifies a major national investment of time and money in the Florida governor's race. That could change, they insist, if this latest Bush business scandal develops legs.

Jeb Bush's path to fortune and fame follows a familiar Bush family trajectory -- use family connections to help make a quick killing in the private sector, and use that money and business experience to launch a political career. It's a story that's been well documented since the media began asking questions about President Bush's past business deals with Harken Energy Corp. and the Texas Rangers. But just like his older brother the president, now that he is a powerful elected official, Jeb Bush can't seem to escape nagging questions about his time in the private sector.

The focus of the renewed scrutiny is Jeb's partnership with David Eller, president and CEO of MWI Corp., a Florida-based water pump company. The Department of Justice is now accusing MWI of using millions in U.S. government loans, obtained from the Export-Import Bank, to bribe Nigerian officials to buy MWI pumps. The suit was originally filed by a former MWI employee in 1998. The government decided to intervene on the employee's behalf earlier this year.

Eller, a major Republican donor and activist, formed a partnership with Bush in 1989 called Bush-El. The business was established to sell MWI pumps and other equipment in other countries. During his father's presidency, Bush visited Nigeria twice as an MWI advocate. The visits from the first son were major events in Nigeria, according to media reports. There was even a parade, complete with 1,300 horses, in Bush's honor. The St. Petersburg Times reported that "tens of thousands of people lined the road to welcome the American president's son."

Bush was in Nigeria to help sell millions of dollars worth of MWI products to the Nigerian government. According to a 1992 Wall Street Journal article, Bush was simultaneously working to arrange a visit to the White House by Nigerian President Ibrahim Babangida. "Jeb Bush's experiences in the pump business provide a case study in how to profit from a Presidential name -- perfectly legally, by all appearances," the Journal wrote.

But the financing of the deal that came out of those visits was less than perfectly legal, the Department of Justice now claims. A government complaint seeking millions in damages against MWI suggests political influence played a large role in MWI obtaining the multimillion dollar Export-Import loans in the first place. In fact, the government suggests that Eller's political connections were the primary reason MWI was able to secure government loans at all. Although the suit suggests the company cashed in on its political connections to help secure the government loans, it seems to go out of its way not to mention Jeb Bush by name. The suit notes that Eller did business with "a member of a prominent national political family in an attempt to bolster MWI's sales abroad" -- an obvious reference to Jeb Bush.

"MWI's overt political activism and influence created both sales opportunities in Nigeria and ready access to [Export-Import] Bank loan support for those sales back in the United States," the complaint says. "The fact that MWI was able to obtain Exim Bank Financing at all is surprising given the Nigerian Federal Government's traditionally poor credit history."

Bush spokesman Todd Harris denies any wrongdoing on the part of the governor, and points out that Bush's opponents have tried unsuccessfully for more than a decade to use MWI as a way to attack Bush politically and it hasn't worked. When the case was first filed back in 1998, Democrat Buddy MacKay tried to raise the issue in his run against Bush. "That was the only issue that they ran on," says Harris. "They pushed and pushed on that issue, and Buddy MacKay got his butt kicked. But Democrats keep trying to bring it up."

Next Page: Money for bribes, or just a big commission?

• View blog reactions